Studies in constructive theology

This submission centres on substantive issues of constructive theology, and particularly on interpreting the love of God. The focus is on the multi -layered impact of a Christology of divine love, developed through five monographs (I began to look at concepts of love as key to exegesis in theology in my Ph.D. thesis, published as EXEGESIS AND METHOD IN HILARY OF POITIERS, 1978).THEOLOGY OF THE LOVE OF GOD (1980) explores concepts of the love of God as the basic structuring element of Christian theology. In engagement with interpretations of love in the tradition, and with contemporary use of concepts of faith, hope and history, it is proposed that the nature of God as love shapes every aspect of theology. This is exemplified through analysis of the relationship between creation and redemption, understood as one dynamic movement, disrupting boundaries of redemption.IN GOD IN CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE (1994) the enterprise is developed further. An understanding of God as a multifaceted model draws on Christology and Trinity, faith and practice in community. God is personal, self -differentiated being, transcendent, yet also immanent in the created order as hidden divine presence. The core elements -faith and revelation, divine action and Christology -are reappraised in the light of current theological proposals. Doctrines interact in a web of connection to shape Christian practice. A Christian understanding retains the basic core of unconditional love, Christologically characterised. A contemporary concept of God draws upon these core elements, and upon a retrieval of the historical traditions from which they arise. It can be articulated in language intelligible to contemporary citizens, and its consequences spelled out within the complexity of contemporary cultures.Generosity and the Christian Future (1997) carries this thesis to a further stage through engagement with the emancipatory theologies, postmodernity, and political theory. The study re- imagines the framework of the divine love conceived as generosity. The need to be as alert to potential future as to past developments, and to relate doctrine to political theory and cultural issues, is grounded in theological -more precisely kenotic-Christological argument. Attention is paid to issues of human rights, violence, gender and the power structures of the churches themselves.JOHN AND DONALD BAILLIE TRANSATLANTIC THEOLOGY (2002), built on first access to the Baillie Papers, lies at the heart of this submission. I regard the work of the Baillies as seminal to the understanding, justification and revisioning of a progressive Christian theology. This is a theological biography of the Baillie brothers. It traces in detail the interaction of their theology within the cultures in Europe and America in which they worked - notably in the circle of the `critical realists.' It sheds light on the huge influence of the Baillies in Scotland. This tradition is a trajectory against the stream today. I judge it to offer significant resources, combining conceptual plasticity with distinctive direction, for the future.THE TRANSFORNTATIVE IMAGINATION -RETHINKING INTERCULTURAL THEOLOGY (2004). This comparative study of connections between theology and culture, through the arts, the sciences, political and human rights issues, shapes reflection on the mystery of God in a postfoundational frame. Reciprocity between ethical issues and questions of transcendence is explored. This yields a reconception of theological methodologies, in which theology, and paradoxically Christology, is seen as a catalyst rather than a trump card in interdisciplinary projects -exemplified through specific instances in the humanities, the sciences and in politics.The central theme of the divine love is spelled out in two shorter studies in less technical style. THE CHURCH OF GOD (1984) comments critically on traditions of church, ministry and sacraments in denominational cultures, stressing the Christological imperative to be an always outward looking church. MAKING CHRISTIAN DECISIONS (1985) assesses Christian input into specific ethical issues. I include also the jointly produced collections Studies in Scottish Church History (2000), BELIEVING IN THE TEXT (2004), EXPLORATIONS IN THEOLOGY 8 (1981), and FIFTY KEY CHRISTIAN THINKERS (2004), together with a selection of published articles. The submission documents a project with a distinctive accent on the love of God as Christological leitmotif. It conceives theology as a generous approach to the transcendence of God and the consequences of incarnation

System design of the Pioneer Venus spacecraft. Volume 7: Communication subsystem studies

Communications subsystem tradeoffs were undertaken to establish a low cost and low weight design consistent with the mission requirements. Because of the weight constraint of the Thor/Delta launched configuration, minimum weight was emphasized in determining the Thor/Delta design. In contrast, because of the greatly relaxed weight constraint of the Atlas/Centaur launched configuration, minimum cost and off the shelf hardware were emphasized and the attendant weight penalities accepted. Communication subsystem hardware elements identified for study included probe and bus antennas (CM-6, CM-17), power amplifiers (CM-10), and the large probe transponder and small probe stable oscillator required for doppler tracking (CM-11, CM-16). In addition, particular hardware problems associated with the probe high temperature and high-g environment were investigated (CM-7)

Stewardship for the Great Barrier Reef: a review of concepts and definitions of stewardship for the Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier Reef (the Reef) and its outstanding universal value is core to Australia’s identity (Goldberg et al. 2018). However, threats to the health and values of the Reef are multiple, cumulative and increasing (Great Barrier Reef Outlook Report 2019). The Reef is protected and managed using a range of statutory and non-statutory instruments. Stewardship activities form part of these non-statutory activities, leveraging partnerships between community members, government agencies, stakeholders and Traditional Owners. The concept of stewardship is promoted as a way to achieve human-environment harmony, and to mitigate, avoid and repair some threats to Reef health and values. In this report, we identify and describe the use of ‘stewardship’ in academic and some grey literature for the Reef. We found that stewardship in the Reef describes action, education, values, engagement, communication, conservation, protection and sustainable use programs and activities. It is applied at different social scales – from individuals, social groups, communities, organisations to governments; as well as spatial scales from bioregion to national borders and global imaginings. It is often used within the context of applied projects which have demonstrable and measurable objectives, but similarly is used to describe activities that lead to or enable applied projects or are assumed to eventually do so. Our report found that this broad range of activities labelled ‘stewardship’ did not match formal definitions in which stewardship is often defined very narrowly as ‘action’. Therefore, a gap exists between concept and intention regarding what is meant by the term stewardship. This report proposes a definition of stewardship that includes three components encompassing activities designed to engender stewardship thinking, to build capacity for stewardship as well as stewardship as action. In order to understand the broader range of activities occurring that are already being labelled stewardship in the Reef, we suggest a typology which allows activities to be evaluated in their own right – that is, their success in achieving their stewardship purpose rather than against an assumed link to an environmental outcome for which there is no evidence. The purpose of this definition and typology is to enable articulation and then evaluation of stewardship activities against their purpose and ultimately against the larger goal of improved Reef health values

Stewardship for the Great Barrier Reef: A review of concepts and definitions of stewardship for the Great Barrier Reef

Extract: The Great Barrier Reef (the Reef) and its outstanding universal value is core to Australia’s identity (Goldberg et al. 2018). However, threats to the health and values of the Reef are multiple, cumulative and increasing (Great Barrier Reef Outlook Report 2019). The Reef is protected and managed using a range of statutory and non-statutory instruments. Stewardship activities form part of these non-statutory activities, leveraging partnerships between community members, government agencies, stakeholders and Traditional Owners. The concept of stewardship is promoted as a way to achieve human-environment harmony, and to mitigate, avoid and repair some threats to Reef health and values. In this report, we identify and describe the use of ‘stewardship’ in academic and some grey literature for the Reef. We found that stewardship in the Reef describes action, education, values, engagement, communication, conservation, protection and sustainable use programs and activities. It is applied at different social scales – from individuals, social groups, communities, organisations to governments; as well as spatial scales from bioregion to national borders and global imaginings. It is often used within the context of applied projects which have demonstrable and measurable objectives, but similarly is used to describe activities that lead to or enable applied projects or are assumed to eventually do so. Our report found that this broad range of activities labelled ‘stewardship’ did not match formal definitions in which stewardship is often defined very narrowly as ‘action’. Therefore, a gap exists between concept and intention regarding what is meant by the term stewardship. This report proposes a definition of stewardship that includes three components encompassing activities designed to engender stewardship thinking, to build capacity for stewardship as well as stewardship as action. In order to understand the broader range of activities occurring that are already being labelled stewardship in the Reef, we suggest a typology which allows activities to be evaluated in their own right – that is, their success in achieving their stewardship purpose rather than against an assumed link to an environmental outcome for which there is no evidence. The purpose of this definition and typology is to enable articulation and then evaluation of stewardship activities against their purpose and ultimately against the larger goal of improved Reef health values

Leibniz, Acosmism, and Incompossibility

Leibniz claims that God acts in the best possible way, and that this includes creating exactly one world. But worlds are aggregates, and aggregates have a low degree of reality or metaphysical perfection, perhaps none at all. This is Leibniz’s tendency toward acosmism, or the view that there this no such thing as creation-as-a-whole. Many interpreters reconcile Leibniz’s acosmist tendency with the high value of worlds by proposing that God sums the value of each substance created, so that the best world is just the world with the most substances. I call this way of determining the value of a world the Additive Theory of Value (ATV), and argue that it leads to the current and insoluble form of the problem of incompossibility. To avoid the problem, I read “possible worlds” in “God chooses the best of all possible worlds” as referring to God’s ideas of worlds. These ideas, though built up from essences, are themselves unities and so well suited to be the value bearers that Leibniz’s theodicy requires. They have their own value, thanks to their unity, and that unity is not preserved when more essences are added